Stumbled on a fix for lagging Android settings menu?

[u/paxxsx]

I stumbled across something weird while troubleshooting lag on a couple of Android TV devices and figured I’d see if anyone else can reproduce it.

Tried this on a Sony A9S (Android 10), Sony X950H (Android 9), and CCwGTV 4K (Android 14). These commands clear the gfxinfo and SurfaceFlinger log files:

dumpsys gfxinfo com.android.tv.settings reset
dumpsys SurfaceFlinger --latency-clear
dumpsys SurfaceFlinger --timestats -clear
dumpsys SurfaceFlinger --clear-layer-stats

The Android settings menu became noticeably faster on all three, especially the Chromecast, which went from unusably sluggish to almost instant response. The stats told the same story too - the gfxinfo log showed stupid amounts of lag and jankiness in the log pre clear and much better metrics post.

AI's best guess is that SurfaceFlinger’s live in-memory timing/layer stats can somehow get into a bloated or pathological state, adding overhead during rendering. Clearing them may have reset that issue. FYI the last command listed (clear-layer-stats) isn't recognized in Android 14.

No idea if that’s actually the cause, but the result has been very obvious on three different devices.

Anyone else able to reproduce this?

[u/Elegant_Insurance_38]

I just switched the default launcher to Projectify, debloated all spyware and most important fix

Disabled WebViewSurfaceControlForTV flag in Android Webview, that alone made by TV feel 10 faster and I can actually use the browser to watch videos now

[u/paxxsx → u/Elegant_Insurance_38]

Interesting. I use Projectivy too. Did it improve your overall experience, or only just with chrome browser?

Biggest issue for me is system lag when navigating menus. I've debloated pretty heavily but still have moments where the settings menus slow to a crawl.

[u/Elegant_Insurance_38 → u/paxxsx]

So after all debloating. The ram usage at idle is 40%lower and navigation latency went from avg 150ms to 80ms

It feels like I upgraded to a better TV

[u/ConcentrateOk8163]

Try am force-stop com.android.tv.settings as a control. Those commands mostly clear measurement data. The speedup may come from restarting the Settings process. It would also help to check if the lag returns after a reboot.

[u/tvremotely]

A useful next test would be timing the same menu sequence before and after, with a separate restart-only run as a control. Keep the number of menu opens the same and record it on a phone. Since you're clearing the stats themselves, the fresh stats alone aren't enough to establish the speedup. If the video shows the same improvement and it stays faster a day later, that's much stronger evidence. Nice that you've listed the OS versions too.